Times of India: Bengaluru: Friday, July 14, 2017.
The HC on
Thursday granted four weeks to the state government to submit report about
formulating a policy framed for providing protection to genuine RTI activists
and whistle blowers.
"If
three months is counted, it should be May 17, 017 before which the decision was
to be taken including framing of the policy . Since there is already a delay
and the protection of RTI activist or whistle blower is in the larger interest
of society, we direct the accused (Subash Chandra, additional chief secretary )
to consider the matter and report in four weeks about the policy ," a
division bench headed by Justice Jayant Patel observed while adjourning the
proceedings in the contempt petition filed by S Umapathi to August7 .
The
petitioner, who had filed a PIL on the same issue, had submitted representation
to the government on February 17, 2017 in terms of the directions issued by the
division bench headed by Chief Justice. The court had earlier asked the
authorities to consider his representation and take a decision in three months.
The high
court on Thursday stayed further proceedings based on the March 8, 2017
sanction granted by the state government to proceed against senior RSS leader
Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat.
Justice
Aravind Kumar passed an interim order after hearing the petition filed by Bhat.
The court also ordered notice to the home secretary of the state, SHO of Puttur
police station in Dakshina Kannada district, and Ashraf, member of Popular
Front of India, the complainant. Following the sanction order, police had
submitted a chargesheet to the local court in Puttur. On June 24, 2017, the CJM
court issued summons to the petitioner after taking cognizance of the case
wherein Bhat was charged under Section 153A and Section 505(2) of IPC.
According to
the petitioner, he never encouraged any communal disharmony, and the complaint
was registered to tarnish his image.He claimed that the government has accorded
sanction without judiciously scrutinizing the material.Also, the FSL report
submitted on January 8, 2016 indicates that electronic evidence enclosed is not
original and that the complaint was filed only for political revenge, citing
the recent reports attributing that the district minister had asked the local
police to register cases against him, he argued.
On January
23, 2015, Ashraf had filed a complaint alleging that Bhat delivered speeches
which were in the nature of creating communal disturbance at a public meeting
organized by VHP . Based on this, Puttur police registered a case under Section
153A.